DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON 25, FALL 2017, WEEK 2 Hello, everyone! On Monday night of Week 2, Season 25, Dancing with the Stars, Tom and Erin hosted while Carrie Ann Inaba (CAI), Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli judged. The focus was on ballroom dancing (vs. Latin dancing). WHO WAS ELIMINATED MONDAY NIGHT, Sep. 25? Barbara Corcoran (with pro Keo). Tuesday, Sep. 26: Latin dancing will be featured along with a dance-off vs. “Shark Tank” investors (but Shark Barbara won’t be there to participate). OTHER NEWS: We had no clue until he stepped forward and removed his head gear: Derek Hough danced with Light Balance on the “America’s Got Talent” finale last week. WOW! Once revealed, he was as cute and fun as ever! All analyses and results from Monday and Tuesday nights of Dancing with the Stars, Week 2 will be posted here on Wednesday, Sep. 27. See you back here tomorrow with your dancing shoes...

WRITING: ONE WORD, OR TWO? OR … September 19, 2017 Clarity is everything in writing and in speaking. In person you have a chance to clear things up if what you said or asked didn’t quite make sense. But, in writing you don’t have that luxury; you have to be clear up front. Correct and sufficient punctuation can do much to help across the board, including to indicate whether two words should be together as one or should stay separated. Examples: Decision maker life long vs. lifelong eyedrops vs. eye drops Tom is the decision maker. Becoming an author has been her lifelong goal. I need to use more eyedrops. As she turns around, an eye drops into the bucket. A list of words that people often aren’t sure about–one word, or two—can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/901458.One_Word_Two_Words_Hyphenated and http://iws.collin.edu/dparker/tw_class_3211/proposals/Word-List.pdf What’s a third option? Hyphenation. Two words that are working together as a compound adjective to describe a noun need a hyphen between them, without spaces. Unclear: That face licking dog is cute. Is a face licking a dog? What’s happening here? Clear: That face-licking dog is cute. Which dog is cute? The dog that is licking a face is cute. Here’s another sentence that is confusing without punctuation inside it. “We are rewarding our prizes and special access based on attendee ordering sequence.” What’s going on? Are attendees ordering a sequence? If so, a sequence of what? Clear correction: We are rewarding our prizes and special access based on attendee-ordering sequence. The other way around confusion is to rethink and rewrite the sentence: We are rewarding our prizes and special access to attendees who order first. We are rewarding our prizes and special access based on the sequence in which attendees order. We are rewarding our prizes and special access on a first-come, first-served basis. We are rewarding our prizes and special access: Order first to get them first. See how clear sentences can be with sufficient punctuation? (Sigh) I love clarity! Many lessons and bits of advice in this writing/grammar series have been taken from Writestyle’s online campus. ...

DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON 25, FALL 2017 PREMIERE Welcome to Week 1 of Season 25 of Dancing with the Stars! Tom and Erin hosted, as lively and witty as ever. Carrie Ann Inaba (CAI), Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli (left to right, as usual) judged. THE FULL CAST! “Property Brothers’” real-estate expert Drew Scott & pro Emma Slater Singer/Actor/former “98 Degrees” boy-band member Nick Lachey & pro Peta Murgatroyd Vanessa (Minillo) Lachey (Nick’s wife) & pro Maks Chmerkovskiy WWE Wrestler Nikki Bella & pro Artem Chigvintsev Actor/Singer/Dancer Jordan Fisher (Disney, “Hamilton”) & pro Lindsay Arnold Former NBA champ/former Knick’s Coach Derek Fisher & pro Sharna Burgess Former Paralympic Swimmer Victoria Arlen & pro Val Chmerkovskiy Actor Frankie Muniz (formerly ‘Malcom’: “Malcolm in the Middle”) & pro Witney Carson Electronic Violinist Lindsey Stirling & pro Mark Ballas (2-Time MBT winner) Singer/Dancer Debbie Gibson & pro Alan Bersten “Shark Tank” Investor Barbara Corcoran & pro Keo Motsepe Actress Sasha Pieterse (“Pretty Little Liars”) & pro Gleb Savchenko Retired NFL Receiver Terrell Owens & pro Cheryl Burke (2-Time MBT winner) The Possible Ballroom & Latin Dances: Foxtrot, Quickstep, Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Jive, Jazz, Charleston, Contemporary; Cha-Cha, Samba, Salsa, Tango, Argentine Tango, Rhumba, Paso Doble. Dancing With The Stars: Week 1 Analysis (Sep. 18, 2017) Season 25’s Fall Premiere opened in the desert with Alan and Sharna walking and then judge Len Goodman coming along to pick them up in a glitzy silver golf cart. Into the city they went, where “Dancing in the Street” played its irresistible beat and celebs came out to be with their pros, all dancing in the street, with all female pros completely in small silver pieces and all male pros in a silver/black combo. Their dancing turned into a huge crowd for blocks! Then the teams ran inside to the ballroom. IT WAS ALL SO COOL! The Stars and the pros tonight gave us an interesting, well-done show. The producers did a surprisingly good job of casting this time, WITHOUT Olympic gymnasts (thank you!). No one was flat-out terrible, we had a few fabulous surprises that we don’t expect in Week 1, several scores were unfairly low while a few were too high, and certain performances matched my expectations. As often happens, the judges cheated the first contestant on scoring and continued in that vein most of the night, with Len and Bruno shortchanging celebs more than Carrie Ann did and Len finally being fair to a couple of them while Bruno still held...

DANCING WITH THE STARS PRE-SEASON 25 EXCITEMENT! September 17, 2017 NEWS Frequent Pro Sasha Farber will have less work to do on the show this season as a troupe member so that he can also work on and line up other projects. Like, maybe helping to plan his wedding to Emma Slater? I’m eager to see Season 24 winner pro Emma Slater dance with new celeb partner Drew Scott; I think they could do pretty well. Dance veteran Debbie Gibson has been recovering from Lyme disease, which can be very serious. Pro partner Alan Bersten is taking good care of her. Her decades in fitness probably help a lot, too. It’s been said that Terrell Owens once won a Michael Jackson dance contest. He really seems to be a good, upstanding guy. I’d say that, paired with longtime Dancing with the Stars pro and Mirrorball Trophy-winner Cheryl Burke, he could have a good chance of going long toward a win. I’m guessing that they’ll stay more toward the center of the pack for a while and then move forward. Violinist Lindsey Stirling may have an advantage or two over other celeb competitors this season. One, she’s paired with ultra-creative pro Mark Ballas. Two, her knowledge of music could help her to learn dance moves easier and faster. Three, she has some degree of a dance background. I think she’ll do well. Watch for her new Christmas/holiday album, “Warmer in the Winter,” to come out Oct. 20. I’ll be first in line! After Season 25 ends, she’ll do a Christmas tour to promo the album. The Houghs and Mark Ballas are even busier than they used to be! Siblings Derek and Julianne Hough ALWAYS have lots going on! Derek has theater, TV, and maybe even movie deals; that’s after and probably also while he judged on “World of Dance” this summer. How/when does he have time for social and romantic lives? Julianne is dealing with life changes as a newlywed; I’m not sure what all she has lined up professionally except that the word is that she will not be on the judging panel this time. Mark is still a newlywed, he’s a DWTS pro this season, and he always has music projects going, too, with wife BC Jean. I can’t imagine how they manage to do all that they do, but somehow they do, probably with personal assistants, sheer determination, and love for their careers. PREDICTIONS: Do any of you favorite couples so far? Are you predicting...

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About Me

Professionally, after decades of employment for others, Vickie Weaver founded Writestyle in 1996 to provide writing, editing, proofreading, training, and more to clients worldwide. She has written and/or edited for “Coexistence Magazine” (national), “Ohio Magazine,” and various newspapers. In addition, she has edited or contributed to the writing of numerous books. Personally, she has won awards and publication for some of her poems and is compiling a book of her poetry. She enjoys music and dance, and strives for beauty and harmony in life.